During the first nine weeks, chemistry will focus our efforts on building a "tool box" of skills that we will need in order to 'do' chemistry. Until we have these tools under our control, we won't be able to do what most people think of as chemistry. The time and effort you spend mastering these basic will pay off BIG TIME as we move through the course.

What does that mean? We will have 4 basic units of study this first nine weeks.

UNIT ONE

The first unit of study focuses on learning our way around the periodic table and connecting the information about atoms and their structure to their location on the periodic table.

BRING WITH YOU a working knowledge of:
  1. the structure of an atom (its subatomic particles, their locations and relative charges)
  2. ions and isotopes
  3. a willingness to learn new things!

LOOKING FORWARD: Once we know our way around the periodic table and the many things that can be gleaned from it we will use



UNIT TWO
In this unit we will focus on how atoms come together and interact in order to form compounds and molecules.

BRING WITH YOU: A working knowledge of:
  1. the organization of the periodic table
  2. the charges that s and p block elements will most often form
  3. the Lewis Dot structures for s and p block elements

LOOKING FORWARD: Once we have mastered compounds and formula writing we will use this to begin our study of reactions.

THE BASICS

By the end of this unit you should be able to:
  1. Identify the type of bonding present in a compound by looking at the formula or the name
  2. Use a systematic approach to naming new compounds based on bonding type and naming rules
  3. Use a systematic approach to writing formulas from names based on bonding type and corresponding rules
  4. Identify compounds as ionic or covalent based on their properties and/or experimental results


Mrs. Bowen's Chemistry Web Page